Sportscar racing
competitions sure have the favorite teams and drivers, those that
stand out against the rest of the competition, but betting on these
favorites isn't a sure shot every time, like what happened in the 3
Hours of Thailand, third round of the
2015/2016 Asian Le Mans Series season,
with the first victory of Eurasia
Motorsport.
The No. 99 full
season car was there, but it wasn't the star of the race. In fact,
the guest starter No. 9 KFC-backed ORECA 03, driven by Sean
Gelael and Antonio
Giovinazzi, the youngest squad in the
field, recovered from an early puncture and as the race went on, the
rookie duo got the lead and finished like this. A detail to be
noticed is the fact that both Gelael and Giovinazzi had no sportscar
experience prior to this race. Second overall and 30 seconds later
was the Algarve Pro Racing
Ligier JS P2, ahead of the current championship leaders from Race
Performance.
The LMP3
class had only two cars as the No. 88 Team AAI ADESS 03 crashed
during qualifying and was unable to start. Between those in the race,
it was another show for the No. 1 DC
Racing Ligier JS P3, even with gearbox
problems during the three hours of competition.
In the GT
class, the dark horse claimed victory, as Nexus
Infinity won for the first time in the
season, but this triumph wouldn't come without a hard fight, as the
Absolute Racing's new Audi R8 LMS and the No. 91 Team AAI BMW Z4 GT3
were respectively 7 and 9 seconds late of the class winning car. The
GT-Am
class had only the same KCMG Porsche Cup car on track, finishing 12th
out of the 17 starting cars.
The CN
class had a day not to remember, as both Wolf GB08 machines hit a lot
of trouble and retired around the second hour of racing.
Some teams go out of
the Chang International Circuit with titles clinched, as the example
of the DC Racing squad in the LMP3 class, getting a place in the 24
Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2
class. The GT-Am class title went to KCMG, as the Paul Ip-led team
was the only entry in the class throughout the season.
Between the classes that
still have unfinished business, the LMP2 class has Race Performance
21 points ahead of the No. 99 Eurasia Motorsport car (66 vs. 45), so the Filipino
team has to make almost a miraculous job to win the title. The CN
class has Avelon Formula 5 points ahead of Atlantic Racing Team (25 vs. 20), so
the one with the class win conquers the title. The GT class battle is
down to two entries, as Clearwater Racing is 20 points ahead of Nexus
Infinity (63 vs. 43), which can the get the title if they stay on top and
Clearwater stay in the bottom of the field, and the class pole position may come to help if they conquer it.
Next round, the last
of this season, is at Sepang again, on January 24th. Most of the entries seen at Buriram are expected to be there, so we will have good grid numbers again.
PHOTOS: Asian Le Mans Series
Comments
Post a Comment
Do you have an opinion? Feel free to comment.